The Met: Rigoletto

By Rebecca Lentjes, 13 November 2013

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Reviewed at Lincoln Center: Metropolitan Opera House, New York City on 11 November 2013

Verdi, Rigoletto

Metropolitan Opera

Pablo Heras-Casado, Conductor

Michael Mayer, Director

Irina Lungu, Gilda

Oksana Volkova, Maddalena

Matthew Polenzani, The Duke of Mantua

Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Rigoletto

Štefan Kocán, Sparafucile

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Susan Stempleski, 20th April

The Lithuanian soprano’s riveting performance as the central character in Tchaikovsky’s operatic masterpiece lights up Deborah Warner’s mostly bland production.

****1

Innocence: Saariaho’s final opera receives New York premiere

Kurt Gottschalk, 6th April

At the Metropolitan Opera, Innocence proves a gripping and perhaps divisive piece which feels real because it is a reflection of our reality, with no realistic hope of finding peace.

*****

Tristan und Isolde at the Met: staging gets in the way of the music

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***11

Ailyn Pérez is the perfect Butterfly in the Met’s revival

Robert Levine, 13th January

Good Butterflys are not that difficult to come by but great ones are very very rare. Ailyn Pérez fits the bill in this revival of Anthony Minghella’s classic staging.

*****

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Marco Armiliato conducts a finely balanced rendition of Bellini's final masterpiece with a stellar cast headed by Lisette Oropesa and Lawrence Brownlee.

*****

Porgy and Bess returns stronger than ever at the Met

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*****

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Rebecca Lentjes

Rebecca graduated from New York University in 2012, where she studied Music and Romance Languages. She now works as an assistant editor at RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) and as manager of contemporary music collective ensemble mise-en.

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